by Toni Aleo
And that made her feel good. The only problem was that everyone assumed they were together. Even though, yes, they did have amazingly, awesome, hot sex, they were not together, nor would they ever be. But before she could correct anyone, Phillip was there, always denying it before sending her the carefree grin she enjoyed so much. He never let anyone say anything about them. Anytime they tried—and they did, all the time—he would change the subject, asking about their children or their grandchildren. He was amazing. He was a charmer and soon, everyone gathered around them, all wanting a piece of Phillip Anderson. He talked about his career and about Claire, about anything and everything that kept the subject off of them.
The ladies seemed to never want him to stop talking… and Reese felt the same way.
And that was bad.
Very, very bad.
Especially when Phillip excused himself to the bathroom, leaving her with only her grandma. Because Phillip was going to the bathroom, so did the whole Bingo hall. Seemed legit, right? Reese laughed as she shook her head, spinning her hot pink dobber around as she waited for the next game to start, avoiding all eye contact with her grandmother.
“Not together, huh?”
She let out an annoyed breath, even though she knew the comment was coming. Reese looked over at her grandmother and shook her head. “We’re friends.”
“Friends that are doing more than just playing Bingo. I’m not stupid, Reese. I was young once too and just like you, I was just friends with a guy.”
Reese instantly felt uncomfortable at the mere thought of her grandmother doing half of what her and Phillip did, but she shook the thought away and reiterated, “Really, we are just friends.”
“So were we, but things changed, and then I married him.”
Reese blanched before shaking her head. Her and Pawpa? Ew.
“While I love the image you just painted of you and my pawpa, I hate to burst your bubble, Grandma, because he’s just my friend. No wedding bells, no pitter-patter of little feet, nothing. We are friends and that’s it.”
She laughed as she shook her head. “If he was just a friend, you wouldn’t have brought him. He does something to you, makes your feel, and that scares you. My advice, darling, even though you haven’t asked for it, is if you don’t want more than sex with that man, let him go, cause he is falling for you.”
“No, he isn’t,” Reese said, making a face.
“Yes, he is, I can see it, everyone can. He is completely smitten with you.”
“No,” Reese said again, “he’s not. We are friends.”
Her grandma shook her head before looking down at the cards right as Phillip fell into his seat. He looked over and winked at her playfully. Even though her whole body went hot, and she smiled back, she saw something. Something that could mean that her grandmother might be very right.
And that couldn’t happen.
The kisses were hot. Her body, on fire. Everything was so hot, so demanding, as Phillip quickly ripped every single inch of clothing off her. She lengthened her neck as he licked and nipped at her, his fingers biting into her hips. She arched her back, and he ran his tongue down the valley of her breast before taking the time to kiss each one before taking her nipple in his mouth to torment her. Dipping his fingers inside her, he pressed his thumb to her clit, applying pressure while fucking her with his fingers at the same time. Her moans filled her apartment, her fingers tangling in his hair as his body shook with want. He was going to rip her apart. He was going to make her body his, and nothing was going to stop him. She came hard, shaking underneath his large, talented hands, but he wasn’t done. Kissing down her belly, he licked her thighs and then ran his tongue slowly up her pussy, his eyes never leaving hers.
God, she was beautiful as she came off her climax.
“I think we should try a threesome.”
His mouth froze as his brows came together. She was breathing heavily, her heart pounding in her chest. He could hear it, feel it, but none of that mattered because surely he did not hear her right.
“Excuse me?”
She looked down at him, sitting up on her elbows, and he did the same.
“I think it would be fun. Maybe another girl. You have a friend you can call, right? Or I can call someone, maybe.”
He could only blink as she looked at him as if she was saying, ‘Pass me the cream’. Was she fucking serious?
He wanted to say ‘fuck to the hell no,’ but instead he said, “Um, I don’t know.”
“Why not? It would be fun. Wanna call someone now?”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “I want to fuck you; I don’t want to fuck someone else. You seriously want to bring someone in here? What the hell? Are you fucking someone else?”
Her brows came together this time as she said, “Why not? I mean we aren’t dating. We are having fun; I thought we could spice it up.”
“No,” he said again, sitting farther up, his body shaking, not with want anymore, more like anger. “Dating or not, I am fucking you, you are fucking me, and that’s it.”
“Come again?”
“That’s what I’m trying to make you do, Reese, but you want to bring someone else in the bedroom or wherever else we have sex in, and I’m not cool with that. I want to be the only one you’re with.”
“That’s dating,” she said, and she started to move out from underneath him.
And he let her as he said, “No it isn’t. It’s a courtesy. Kind of like a tradeoff. I make you come, and you fuck only me.”
“No, you’re falling for me,” she exclaimed as she sat up, taking the pillow to cover her body.
“What the fuck? No, I’m not,” he said, and he wasn’t really lying.
Was he?
“You are! If you weren’t, then why would you want only me?”
“Because I like you. We have fun, and you fucking blow my mind. Don’t act like that isn’t how you feel either.”
She shook her head quickly, and something broke inside him. “No. No, that isn’t how I feel. You need to go,” she said, rolling off the bed and grabbing her bathrobe.
“Are you serious? What the hell?”
“I can’t give you what you want. I’m not that person, and I told you that.”
“What the fuck do I want?” he asked, standing up, still completely naked.
“A girlfriend. I’m not girlfriend material. So just go.”
“That’s not what I’m asking for. I’m asking for you to do only me, is that too much to ask for? I don’t see a problem here.”
“Well, there is,” she said, her defiant little chin up in the air as she crossed her arms across her chest. Gone was the Reese he truly enjoyed, and bitchy Reese stood in front of him.
“I can’t give up having sex with other people.”
Whoa. Wait.
“What the fuck does that mean? You’re fucking someone else and me?”
“Uh yeah, have been since the beginning.”
The air was thick with tension. His heart was pounding, but also breaking at the same time. He said he wasn’t in love with her, but maybe he was. He thought they had something. He thought she liked him, could maybe even love him. Why wasn’t he fucking enough? Wow, this blew his ego to shit. Looking down at the ground, he reached for his boxers and slowly slid them up. He couldn’t trust himself to say anything else, so he continued to get dressed without even a glance at her. When he pulled the zipper to his jeans up, he turned to look at her.
“This doesn’t affect you and Claire, okay? Give me that.”
“No problem,” she said after clearing her throat. He thought maybe her eyes were glossy, but he knew that couldn’t be true. She didn’t care about him.
Her walls, her heart, were solid rock. There was no breaking through that. No matter how hard he tried to score.
“Okay, well, it was good while it lasted.”
“It was.”
But now it was over.
PHILLIP WOULD like to say that for th
e next two weeks, he slept with anything with tits and completely forgot about Reese but if he did, the good Lord above would shoot him down with lightning. So instead, he would admit that he was miserable. For two weeks, every single porn he watched, every single girl he touched, anything Claire said and did, reminded him of Reese. He was an asshole to everyone. Yelling, slamming things around. He knew no one wanted to be around him, and it was all Reese’s fault. He missed her. So bad it hurt. He had so many drafts started with just simple texts like:
Hey, what’s up?
How ya doing?
Wanna meet up, fuck this out?
I miss you so much.
The last one he deleted, but he had typed it and almost sent it. He knew it would do nothing but cause her to push him away even more, but it was true. He craved her touch, her kisses, her eyes, her body, her mouth, everything… he needed her. It didn’t matter what he did, who he fucked, he just couldn’t come. He wasn’t a Miley Cyrus fan by a landslide, but it was easy to say her song, “Wrecking Ball” was on repeat on his iPod because Reese had wrecked him.
And it was killing him.
He just couldn’t wrap his brain around it. Did he not matter? Was he not enough and if so, why? He fucked her good. He could make her body sing for him, and he knew that she cared for him. Was it all lies? Was it all in his head? Did he crave her love so much he started imaging it? Would he never be enough? Ugh, he was so tired of thinking of this; he was so tired of doubting himself. He was a great-looking guy, could fuck a girl any way she wanted, and damn it, he was the best damn hockey player in the league. He was a catch! So why couldn’t a woman fucking love him? He wasn’t good enough for his mom, he wasn’t good enough for his first love, and now he wasn’t good enough for Reese. He knew he could find a girl and she would make him believe he was enough, but he wanted it to be real.
He fucking wanted Reese.
With a groan, he let his head fall back, hoping that Erik would think it was because he died in Call of Duty and not that he was emotionally fucked up over a girl. This was the first time this had happened in ten years and did Reese care? No, mostly because she didn’t know, but if she did, he knew she still wouldn’t care. He was usually a rush-the-goal kind of guy, but he didn’t know how to win this game. He didn’t know how to make Reese his.
This was that ballerina’s fault! Phillip wanted nothing more than to find the asshole that broke her and kill him, but what would that do? He doubted it would help, so instead, he drank a little more than he should, tried to have sex with girls that did nothing for him, and played video games with his best friend.
Pathetic.
Erik threw his controller down and leaned back into the couch. “Okay, want to tell me what’s up? You’ve been off for the last two weeks. The huffing and puffing you are doing is annoying. Also, you’ve been sucking on the ice.”
“Fuck you, I have not!” Phillip yelled, causing his buddy, Dimitri, to look up at him with wide eyes from his playpen. “Sorry bud.”
“Yes, you have. You completely missed the goal last game.”
He did, but he would never admit that. “Did not, someone tipped it.”
“No one was around you.”
“Ugh, fuck you, shut up,” he growled, but then saw that Dimitri was still watching him. “Sorry bud.”
Erik chuckled beside him before saying, “Reese has you in knots, huh?”
He let out a breath as he slowly nodded his head. He really didn’t want to talk about this, but it was Erik. Erik knew everything. They both came from shit ass parents, bad home lives, and had actually made something of themselves. While Erik let his childhood ruin him for most his life, until he allowed himself to love Piper, Phillip did the opposite. He learned from everything. He worked hard to never end up like his dead-beat dad, and fucked-up mom. He was going to succeed. He was going to be happy. Even though he lost his first love, he didn’t let it ruin him. He knew it had happened for a reason. He knew that she, Alana, wasn’t the one, because she allowed her father to make the decision for them, and he was fine with that. Got over her quickly but even then, he didn’t feel the way he did now.
He just felt empty now.
It was scary and with a nod, he said, “Yeah. She broke off what little we had. She had apparently been screwing other people while with me.”
“No shit? Dude, that blows, but I told you Reese was a man-eater. Hell, even she will admit it.”
Phillip ran his hands through his hair. “I know, but I thought maybe I was different. She didn’t act stuck up when she was with me. We laughed. We had a great time. The sex was so fucking hot, and I liked her, even with her clothes on. I mean, that has to mean something, right?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Well, to her it didn’t.”
Erik shook his head. “Sucks, dude.”
“We have so much in common. We talked about everything. It wasn’t always about sex, and I just don’t get it. I don’t understand. Why aren’t I enough for her?”
Erik didn’t say anything for a moment and then asked, “You love her or something?”
“Or something,” Phillip admitted, closing his eyes and shaking his head.
Erik sucked in a breath. “Damn, that sucks. I know what Piper did to me. Absolutely destroyed me emotionally, in a good way, but I thought it was a bad way. Anyway, you know the story, but Piper is soft while Reese is hard. That girl has some issues. I hate it for you, man, but this might be the one to let go.”
Erik was right. “I know, but I can’t. I can’t let her go; I can’t do anything, because all I do is sit here and try to figure out how I could make her see that I am worth the chance.”
“Why work to make anyone see, dude? It should just happen.”
“True, but did Piper give up?”
Erik looked away and slowly shook his head. “No, she didn’t.”
“And I don’t think I can give up on Reese. I ‘or something’ her.”
Erik chuckled. “So, what are you going to do?”
“I have no clue. If I knew, I wouldn’t have spent the last two weeks wrecked beyond repair.”
“Hey guys.”
Both men turned to see Piper smiling at them. Dimitri let out a shriek, and her smile grew.
“Baby, I didn’t hear you come in,” Erik said, getting up to greet her. She had been at the spa with her sister Harper, and maybe Reese.
“Snuck in on y’all. What are you two talking about?”
“Nothing,” Erik said dismissively as he wrapped his arms around her.
“How long have you been standing there?” Phillip asked. Uneasiness settled in his stomach as Piper looked over at him with a grin that told him she had been there for a while and heard everything he said.
But all she did was shrug her shoulders and say, “I just got here. Why, what were y’all talking about?”
Fuck. She heard him.
“Nothing, baby. Mmm, you smell good,” Erik said, running his nose up into her hair, causing her to giggle.
“Stop,” she said halfheartedly before looking at Phillip. “What are you doing tonight?”
“Nothing,” he said, noting that she wasn’t fighting to know what they were talking about, which confirmed that she heard them. The only thing he wondered was what that meant. Would she call Reese? Should he ask her not to?
Damn it. What should he do?
“Why don’t we go out? I have a babysitter, and I think Audrey and Tate want to go.”
“Sure,” he said, even though he had no desire to go out. Claire was home tonight; he should go and sit with her, but she was studying for mid-terms and said she couldn’t be bothered. That was why he was at Erik’s, to give her peace, and maybe that was good because the more Piper kept smiling, the more he knew he had to get her drunk and find out what she heard.
And then beg her not to tell Reese.
And then ask her what she thought he should do.
Because he had no clue.
“Nice
of you to answer my calls!”
Reese let out a breath. “You called six times in a row. Then you were smart and called me from Erik’s phone, so yeah, I answered. I’m guessing everyone is okay?”
“Oh everyone is fine, why are you screening and ignoring calls?”
Reese shrugged, pulling her sweatshirt down. “No reason, just being lazy. Been working hard, we have Chicago coming up for competition.”
It was all a lie. She was tired and being lazy, but Chicago wasn’t the reason she was ignoring everyone calls. Chicago may be huge for the studio, but it was a cakewalk for her dancers. They always dominated, and she was actually surprised that Piper seemed to believe her lie.
“That’s cool. Yeah, I thought maybe you were upset or something.”
“Why would I be upset?”
“You sound upset, and I haven’t seen you in two weeks.”
“Yeah, I’ve been busy. I’m fine. Great even. Ready for Chicago.”
“That’s wonderful. I’m glad, but it would still be nice to see you. What have you been up to, other than working?”
Absolutely nothing.
“Oh you know, the regular stuff.”
She laughed. “Do I even want to know how many men you’ve been messing with?”
Zero, but who was counting? Oh no, wait, she took that back, Ben and Jerry counted, right? That was two!
Reese laughed to cover up the fact she wanted to cry. She never cried. Never over a guy, except for Kevin. He was the only guy she had ever cried over as an adult, and then Phillip comes along and it was like he ripped her apart when she told him to leave. Why did it hurt so much? Why did she care? She told him to leave and instead of living the way she had been, she had been holed up in her apartment. She was a sad excuse for a single woman.
“You know how I am.”
Piper paused, and Reese didn’t know why. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said quickly, maybe too quickly.
“Yeah, well, come out with us tonight. We are going to go party it up for the night since Mom has Dimitri. I think Harper is going, maybe even Elli and Shea.”